Introduction:Years ago there were an idea that pay is the most important cause of work motivation. Later, researchers found that the design and the characteristics of the job greatly affect the employee motivation. Aims: Identify the extent to which the nurse's job have skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback, assess the nurses internal work motivation, and find the effect of job characteristics on nurses internal work motivation. Study design: A descriptive correlational design was used. Setting: The study was conducted at Main Assuit University Hospital. Subject and Method: The subject of the study was all bedside nurses working in the Intensive Care Units at Main Assuit University Hospital (159). A selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect data which includes: Personal data sheet, Work Design Questionnaire, and Multimethod Job Design Questionnaire. Results: Autonomy and Feedback correlated positively and significantly with motivation. Conclusion: Activities performed by nurses have high skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback and high internal work motivation, also the most effective core job characteristics on motivation were autonomy and feedback. Recommendations: organizations system should include information about the importance of job characteristics in improving nurses' satisfaction, motivation and quality of care.

Back ground: Health Care Assistants (HCA) emerged primarily to support the professional nurse and to undertake non-nursing duties under the supervision of qualified nurses. Recently unlicensed personnel have been used as substitutes for professional nurses. Aim of the study: To develop a job description for assistant nurses. Setting: The study was carried out at Assuit University Hospitals. Subjects and methods: The subjects included all head nurses working in the designated settings (n = 72) and 10% of the total assistant nurses (n = 40). Data collection tools: The data for the present study was collected using three different tools: a questionnaire sheet, an observation sheet (job analysis) and focus group discussion. Results: The present study revealed that there is no training program and orientation made for assistant nurses and there is no job description for them. There was congruency between the head nurses' opinions, job analysis and focus group discussion as regards indirect care, and environmental activities performed by assistant nurses. Recommendations: The researchers recommended a conduct training program for assistant nurses about infection control principles, communication skills, and nursing profession .Constant direct supervision by authoritative persons for assistant nurses should be established in the hospitals.